GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An estimated 10.5 million children are domestic workers, around the world, new figures published 12 June by the International Labour Organization in Geneva show. Its latest report on child labour notes that an additional estimated “5 million children, who are above the minimum legal age of work in their countries, are involved [...]

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Mission in Geneva has issued a statement made by Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe that draws attention to “the first UN resolution explicitly affirming the crucial role of freedom of opinion and expression in women’s empowerment.” For Donahoe “This statement by the global community strikes directly at historic and current attempts [...]

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN refugee agency carried out three studies in 2012 “on housing issues and homelessness among refugees and asylum-seekers in Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia” and concluded that “Homelessness and the threat of homelessness are two of the most serious conditions”. Inadequate integration procedures seem to be at the root of the problems [...]

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jan Egeland, 56, has been named secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the organization said Thursday evening 6 June. NRC is the largest humanitarian organization in Norway. The International Displacement Monitoring Centre was established in 1998 by the NRC; it is the leading international body monitoring internal displacement worldwide. Egeland [...]

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (includes video)- Plan International will unveil a project Friday 31 May to put an end to the practice of marrying children. It will publish a new report Friday, A girl’s right to say no to marriage: Working to end child marriage and keep girls in school. The group argues that there is a [...]

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Yemen, which is a signatory country to the AP Mine Ban Convention, has been accused in a new Human Rights Watch report of using landmines, in what HRW labels “the most serious violation of the Mine Ban Treaty in its 14 years of existence.” Yemen’s national AP mine ban action group told [...]

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Jakob Kellenberger, who headed the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) until June 2012, has been named president of swisspeace (Swiss Peace Foundation), effective 10 September. The independent research organization, based in Bern, is funded mainly by the Swiss Confederation’s foreign office, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the UN. It [...]